1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill receiving and dispensing device incorporated into an automatic teller machine, and particularly to a technique for replenishment, collecting, and changing of bills in a bill receiving and dispensing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, automatic teller machines are installed in convenience stores or the like. Customers can easily carry out a deposit or withdrawal transaction, a transfer transaction, and the like using the automatic teller machine without going to any branch offices of a banking facility, which contributes to improvement in convenience.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional bill receiving and dispensing device incorporated into such an automatic teller machine. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 51 denotes a housing of the device, and reference numeral 52 denotes a door provided at the front side of the housing 51. Reference numerals 53 and 54 each denote a bill accommodation box for respective types of bills, for example, a bill accommodation tray for 1,000-yen bills and a bill accommodation tray for 10,000-yen bills, in which bills for being received and dispensed are accommodated.
In the above-described structure, when replenishment or collecting of bills for the bill accommodation boxes 53 and 54 is performed, first, locking of the door 52 is released using a special key.
The door 52 is opened and the bill accommodation boxes 53 and 54 are pulled out from the housing 51 toward an operator. Bills for replenishment are supplied in the bill accommodation boxes 53 and 54 and bills for collecting are taken out from the bill accommodation boxes 53 and 54. Thereafter, the bill accommodation boxes 53 and 54 are pushed in into the housing 51 and the door 52 is closed and locked.
However, the above-described conventional device has the problem that even in a case of replenishment and collecting of a small amount of bills, it is necessary to open the door of the housing, pull out the bill accommodation boxes, and push in the bill accommodation boxes into the housing after replenishment or collecting of bills, which causes troublesome operation and increases the burden on the operator.
Further, the bill accommodation boxes are pulled out from the front side of the device. Therefore, cash is exposed to the customer""s eye in a store such as a convenience store, which is not preferable from the standpoint of security.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to realize a bill receiving and dispensing device which can solve the above-described problems.
In order to achieve the above-described object, the first aspect of the present invention is a bill receiving and dispensing device in which at the time of replenishment of bills, a bill cassette, in which a fixed number of sheets of bills can be accommodated, is set at an inlet/outlet opening, the bills within the bill cassette are inserted into the device, and the inserted bills are accommodated in bill accommodation boxes for respective types of bills.
The second aspect of the present invention is a bill receiving and dispensing device in which at the time of collecting bills, a bill cassette, in which a fixed number of sheets of bills can be accommodated, is set at an inlet/outlet opening and bills drawn out from bill accommodation boxes for respective types of bills, are accommodated in the bill cassette.
The third aspect of the present invention is a bill receiving and dispensing device in which at the time of changing bills, a bill cassette, in which bills to be changed can be accommodated, is set at an inlet/outlet opening, the bills within the bill cassette are inserted into the device, and the inserted bills are accommodated in a corresponding bill accommodation box, and bills drawn out from another bill accommodation box are accommodated in the bill cassette.